NSW state-wide speed limit 90km/h?

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

So, what's a 1000 km/hr impact really like?

For your entertainment....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSVfYwdGSsQ


Yes, even I'll admit, at ground level, that's a bit quick to be "safe"

Very nice i enjoyed that video...yep i,m impressed.

Cheers Kev.

[glenc (Glen)]

Here is another calculation. A 40 tonne truck traveling at 24.6 kph has the same kinetic energy as a 2 tonne car traveling at 110 kph. But the truck will have more force in a crash at 24.6 kph because it does not crumple as much as the car. The best solutions are more divided roads and more rail freight. Also trucks and 4WDs need to replace their bull bars with softer bumpers. I am not suggesting that trucks travel at 25 kph but it concerns me when they overtake most of the cars on the road.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Originally Posted by glenc

Here is another calculation. A 40 tonne truck traveling at 24.6 kph has the same kinetic energy as a 2 tonne car traveling at 110 kph. But the truck will have more force in a crash at 24.6 kph because it does not crumple as much as the car. The best solutions are more divided roads and more rail freight. Also trucks and 4WDs need to replace their bull bars with softer bumpers. I am not suggesting that trucks travel at 25 kph but it concerns me when they overtake most of the cars on the road.

Sorry Glen but hell will freeze over before i replace or remove my roo bar which i,m proud of.
I take it that youve never never ploughed into a roo before in your car.
Its the best investment for a vehicle....But i,m talking out west here where its so dry that they sit on the side of the roads at night,But surely theres got to be animals on your roads also.

The best thing i liked about the roo bar law was that nothing shall overhang over the front of the bar such as those fishing rod holders.

Cheers Kev.

[Louwai (Bryan)]

Originally Posted by glenc

The best solutions are more divided roads and more rail freight.

Glen,
Rail freight has for a long time been very expensive. Which is why it's not used more widely.
I remember a little while back I priced the supply of a 40' container to a customer in Mackay.
The container was coming from Nth Africa.
The cost of rail freight from Brisbane to Mackay was more expensive than shipping the container from Nth Africa to Brisbane.

We ended up going by road freight as it was cheaper.

[glenc (Glen)]

We need roo bars that protect cars without being deadly to people. My wife's sister was killed by a roo bar.
We also need rail freight that is faster and cheaper than road freight.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by glenc

But the truck will have more force in a crash at 24.6 kph because it does not crumple as much as the car. ...

An interesting point. The time it takes for a vehicle to decelerate after an impact can be deadly. F1 cars in particular literally are designed to fly apart and crumple to minimize the forces imposed on the driver after very high speed crashes.

Driving Toorak tractors or urban Shermans does give the occupant a better chance of survival if you impact some poor sod in a tiny Hyuandai.

But the tables are turned if you hit something decidedly more solid.

Sometimes refered to as the "ping pong ball" effect, the occupants in a solid vehicle have limited vehicle crumple to slow their deceleration. They in affect bounce around like lotto balls.

[Louwai (Bryan)]

This was a letter to the Editor from an ex policeman, published in the Gold Coast Sun newspaper.

Quote:
ONCE again we witnessed the horrific death toll on our roads over the Christmas period.

As an ex-trafic police officer I ask myself 'when are the politicians and bureaucrats going to realise that all their band-aid treatments have been a total failure?'

Their ideas seem to be more directed at detection and punishment of offenders rather than prevention.

Drivers cause collisions; there are no accidents. They run off roads, hit trees, lose control of their vehicles etc.

Speed, drink, drugs or whatever are secondary to the cause ... important symptoms but not the cause.

No one should be able to teach a person to drive other than a licensed driving instructor, qualified to teach a common system of safe driving (recommend the system used in police driver training.)

We should develop regional training centres equipped with a skid pan, driving simulators and eye-testing facilities to include tests to detect colour blindness.

Examination for a driving licence must be more comprehensive and should include driving at speeds up to 110 km/h, night-driving in poor weather conditions on country roads and on freeways.

Once passed as competent, L and P plates should be abolished.

The second stage of driver education should be through the courts, where instead of a tap on the wrist or paltry fine, traffic offenders may be fined and sentenced to special training at the offender's cost. [I think this may happen in some states in the USA, according to an episode of Malcolm in the Middle I saw recently.]

In cases of drink-driving, why is it necessary to even have a court case with all the associated cost and time consuming trials? If a perosn is deemed over the limit as a result of tests - straight to jail.

The community can no longer keep bearing the ever increasing cost of road trauma.

We have reached the time for some thinking beyond the square and it is high time the decision makers faced the fact that, so far, they have failed miserably to make any progress in solving the problems.
- PETER BROOKE, Mudgeeraba

End of quote.

Seems he has the same belief that I do. TEACH people correctly in the first place.

[Ric]

I was at a MVA callout last night, thankfully there was no major injurys but it could have been a lot worse.

The situation was a typical one we see a lot, basically two cars driving too close and a roo jumps out. The first car brakes heavily and the second car has nowhere to go except up the back of the other one.

Don't forget the 2 second rule and use it as the minimum, 3 or 4 seconds gap at night is much better.

cheers

[glenc (Glen)]

We used to live next to a very dangerous corner on the Pacific Highway.
There was a right hand corner going up hill with an overtaking lane.
When it rained the accidents started. Mostly it was high powered rear wheel drives accelerating and going sideways while overtaking.
The worst crashes were when they went sideways into a truck or 4WD coming down the hill.
Recently there was a crash in the Adelaide hills that killed 3 people. It looked similar to me.

[glenc (Glen)]

You can have your say about speed limits and speed limit signs in NSW.
https://www.saferroadsnsw.com.au/
https://www.saferroadsnsw.com.au/HaveYourSay.aspx